Billy Collins Use of Imagery in Embrace Essay Example

a contrast in his presentation of the second view of a person playing the trick. The contrast will be presented in the later part of this paper. The view at the back is presented in a more positive light in succeeding lines.

In the fourth line, “her hand grasping your shirt”, Collins reinforced the positive image by using “her hands” instead of the person’s own hands. The use of the word “grasping” suggests strong emotions between the two people embracing. He evoked the picture of a full-bodied embrace instead of a tepid one. In a non-passionate moment, two people embracing may wrap their hands on the back of the other and may even give each other an approving pat in the back at the same time, but they do not grasp the others back. “Grasping” suggests that the person is over-come with emotion or passion.

The picture of a passionate embrace becomes even clearer in the next line, “her fingernails teasing your neck. ” This line is very effective. Again, the poem not only uses visual imagery but tactile ones. This line reminds us of the ticklish feeling of someone teasing our neck, goose bumps rising in our skin and the fine hairs in our forearm reacting wildly to the stimuli. Collins is definitely not talking about a platonic embrace. The use of the word “teasing” makes the embrace more sensual. The embrace become even more sensual when one teased the other’s neck. Teasing the neck is a past-time for lovers not for friends.

In the seventh line of the poem, Collins presented the other side of the coin, “from the front it is another story. ” This

line is not only an introduction to the second half of his premise, it also puts a halt to the positive images evoked by the first part of the poem, a rather pragmatic halt one at that. There is no gradual shift from one side to another, Collins seems to say, “enough for the back view, this is the front view. ” Again, this set the mood for the second part of the poem, the front view of the person playing the parlor trick. There is marked contrast between the back and the front view, “you never looked so alone.

The picture of a person alone with his arms wrapped around himself as if he is cold comes to mind. The images are surprisingly tactile even for such a simple line, although this can be because of the tone set by the first part of the poem. However, the next line, “your crossed elbows and screwy grin”, is a marked contrast from the emotional tone of the first part: First, “crossed elbows” can either be uncomfortable or funny and the reader knows this; second, “screwy grin” is a departure from the romantic and sensual words and images used in the first part; and third, the picture of a screwy grin is also a funny one.

The next succeeding lines show further departure from the passionate and romantic mood to a funnier and more amusing one. The person from the front view looked like his crazy. Collins described a crazy person about to be committed to a mental institution in the following terms: you could be waiting for a tailor to fit you with a straight jacket one

that would hold you really tight. (9-11) To make the poem more effective in presenting the conflicting views from which a person’s life is seen, Collins used opposing images for the two views.

For the Back view, he used images that are emotional and passionate. These images are tactile, evoking not only pictures but also physical responses of past passionate embrace. For the front view, he used images that tend to evoke humor instead of sentiment. There is a sense of the ridiculous not found in the first part of the poem. Through “Embrace”, Collins showed us that even something so silly as a parlor trick can provide profound insights on people and reality.